Jim McManus

Artist Statement

 Jim McManus is a graduate of Penn State with a B.A. in Painting. After college, Jim worked in architectural offices in Chicago and on Tortola in The British Virgin Islands where he and his family lived for many years. Jim’s paintings can be found in private and corporate collections in the US, Europe, New Zealand, and the Caribbean. Jim’s father Gene, an Interior and Retail Designer, instilled in him the love of art and design which continually evolves as he plans and constructs his paintings. There is an architectural element to his drawing and use of color and collage. Jim’s collection of island works portray the “Island Lifestyle”. These works invoke happy memories of a visual paradise. The natural environment plays a key role in his work. These days he is largely inspired by the Upper Delaware River area, (as is his wife Laura, also featured in this show) the river, lakes and scenery which this “northern paradise” provides. Jim’s work has been written about by the author Kelly McMasters in her series of essays Notes from a Bookshop in The Paris Review online and other publications.

Artist Resume / Curriculum Vitae
 

 In his Pennsylvania Landscapes, Jim says: “Summer for me is about color and the memories made when the air is warm and the sun is slow to set. The “small walls” of vertical color represent a bridge between the paintings and mood of my Caribbean pictures and my recent Pennsylvania landscapes.” Jim’s work also celebrates objects that evoke memories, such as childhood fun with his fishing tackle box collection and the series of Tagines with Oriental rugs as a backdrop that also reveal his interest in Nomadic life.